The present invention relates to an armrest adjuster, especially to an armrest adjuster by which an armrest not only can be changed between a button-free mode and a button mode easily, but also can be installed optionally for movement and adjustment in the fore-and-aft direction or the lateral direction, or rotation from side to side, with/or without damping action.
There are many armrest adjusters available now such as U.S. Pat. No. 8,474,914 B2. However, there is room for improvement for the armrest available now.
Firstly, users sit on chairs usually work or play games by electronics (such as smartphones, tablet computers, etc.) on their hands or laptops on their knees. The efficiency of the armrest can be increased greatly once the armrest (armrest body) set on each of two sides of the chair can be adjusted or moved (such as rotational adjustment) to the front side of the users for allowing users upper limbs (such as elbows) to lean against or allowing users to put the laptop. However, the conventional armrest is unable to meet the user's needs mentioned above.
Moreover, the armrest pad (armrest body) is usually connected to and disposed on a top surface of an armrest support. For rotational adjustment, and adjustment in the fore-and-aft direction and the lateral direction, the side view of the armrest pad (armrest body) should have a certain height. Thus not only the types of the armrest support used are limited, the appearance of the whole chair is affected. The purchase intension of manufacturers of the chair manufacturers/or the armrest support to the chair armrest is also under influence of the height.
Although certain types of conventional armrest provide rotational adjustment, and adjustment in the fore-and-aft direction and the lateral direction, these armrests are divided into two control modes-a button control mode (such as a press member 90 of the present invention) and a button-free control mode. As to the armrest with the button, users need to press the button first for adjustment in various directions. On the other hand, users can adjust the armrest directly and freely without pressing any button once they sit on the chair with button-free armrests. For manufacturers, the conventional armrests have different structure, unable to be replaced by each other easily according to user's needs. Thus the manufacturing cost is increased and this has negative effects on production management of manufacturing ends or suppliers.
Lastly, plurality of metal fasteners (such as screws) is required to assembly the conventional armrest. Thus the installation of the armrest is not simple. The increased number of the metal parts and accessories results in higher assembly cost. This is not good for the environment.
In order to solve the above problems, there is a need to provide a novel armrest adjuster.